🪨 Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai'pi Provincial Park
Canada
About This Sacred Site
Writing-on-Stone, known as Áísínai'pi ('it is pictured/written') to the Blackfoot, contains the greatest concentration of rock art on the North American Great Plains. The site features thousands of petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings) on the sandstone hoodoos of the Milk River valley, created over a period of at least 3,000 years. The Blackfoot regard this as one of their most sacred landscapes, believing the hoodoos are petrified giants and that the spirit world is particularly close here. The rock art records histories, visions, ceremonies, and the arrival of horses and Europeans, making it an invaluable cultural record.
Key Facts
- •Contains the greatest concentration of Indigenous rock art on the Great Plains
- •Over 50 rock art sites with thousands of individual carvings and paintings spanning 3,000+ years
- •UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019
- •The Blackfoot believe the hoodoos are petrified giants and the spirit world is close here
- •Some panels record the arrival of horses and European contact
Location
Coordinates: 49.0833, -111.6167
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